to the general softness of the scenery. At the dis enemy. The forest resounded with the cries of Indian tance of about five miles from the bridge before men- combat. The villagers fought with the energy of destioned, rises an immense ridge of gray rocks, stand-peration, but were at length obliged to yield to superior ing in bold contrast with the softness of the surround- numbers, and leave their wives, children and property, ing water and landscape like the habitation of the ge- in the power of their enemies. Among the prisoners nius loci. At first rose a precipice to the height of was an Indian girl, betrothed to a young warrior, who more than a hundred feet, without a single break to had signalized himself by his desperate valor in the afford a resting place to the foot, or relief to the eye, defence. The enemy remained for a few days at the and casting its sombre shadow over the water, which scene of their triumph, employed in hunting and fishat its base, was unfathomably deep. The stupendous ing, preparatory to their return. On the eve of their height of the precipice, and the gloomy stillness of departure, the moon had risen in a cloudless sky, and the lake, seemed to discourage all attempts to unveil was gilding lake and woodland with her light. Every their mysteries. But the effect cannot be described. thing on earth was seemingly as peaceful as the heaThe poet may give glowing descriptions of the calm vens. The party, after having, as they thought, secured tranquility in which Nature sometimes reposes in the their prisoners, had lain down to rest ere the march of midst of her most magnificent creations, or the painter the morrow. A slight rustling suddenly aroused a warmay sketch her productions on his canvas. But still rior, and on looking up, the captive maiden was seen there is something wanting to the imagination. In flying like a deer toward the precipices. The alarm the real landscape we see her in deep and pleasing was given, and the pursuit instantly commenced. slumber, while in the copy she must appear in the The distance between the pursuers and the fugitive gloomy stillness of death. was small, when suddenly she appeared to vanish through the solid rock. A few moments of breathless amazement succeeded, when the plash of oars was heard from the water. The brow of the rock was thronged with the dark forms of the savages, gazing into the abyss. Suddenly a canoe, containing two figures, shot from the cave. The whistling of a few unsuccessful arrow shots, and a shout of triumph from the lake, disturbed for a while the tranquility of nature, and the wilderness again sunk into the stillness of midnight.

THE EVE OF BATTLE.

Farther on the rocks become more broken and uneven, towering over each other in the most grotesque forms, and hanging as if suspended by some unseen enchantment. The fishers and raftsmen had given names to many of the detached masses which bore a real or fancied resemblance to objects which they had met with elsewhere. Midway in air hung the "table," the surface of which was covered by a cloth of the richest verdure, as if nature, by the profusion of her bounties, wished to draw men from the cities, to woo and love her in the wilderness. Hard by stood the "arm chair," offering a place of rude repose to the wanderer as he climbed toward the summit, and on the summit itself stood the "pulpit-rock," to which in a clear day the laugh and shout would return in a thousand merry echoes from the surrounding crags. But the most remarkable feature of the landscape was a dark cavern, the hollow of which had probably been opened from the solid rock by some convulsion of the earth. Its entrance from the water would admit a small boat. Of its downward course nothing is known. Its depths are hidden in the deep gloom of the waters. But upwards there is a rough winding passage through the mass of stone to the summit of the precipice, the only ascent at the place from the water to the brow of the hill. The entrance to the upper air is narrow, and so well concealed by scattered masses of granite, as to be unknown except to the people of the vicinity. Di-gate, Captain Lord Garlies, with Sir Gilbert Elliot and rectly over the lower entrance, are traced some rude suite, from Corsica, joined; and from those officers, figures in red paint bearing some resemblance to the also, Sir John Jervis received corresponding informahuman form, and standing as if the guardians of the tion. Commodore Nelson immediately shifted his dark portal beneath, and they have there remained broad pendant into the Captain, and the signal was since the first discovery of the country, as fresh and made to keep close order and to prepare for battle. vivid in their coloring, as when they first waked Lord Garlies, with Sir Gilbert Elliot, and Captain the curiosity of the white man. They are covered Hallowell (a passenger in the Victory) were among with the same veil of mystery as the other parts of Sir John's guests at that day's dinner, which was not the gloomy spot where they are standing. But ro- a late one; and at breaking up a toast was drunk, mance ever ready to lend her light, when that of truth "Victory over the Dons in the battle from which they is obscured, has preserved the following tradition, cannot escape to-morrow!" It is believed that Sir which we heard in substance from the lips of our boat- John Jervis did not go to bed that night, but sat up writing; it is certain that he executed his will. In the course of the first and middle watch the enemy's signal guns were distinctly heard; and, as he noticed them sounding more and more audible, Sir John made more earnest and particular inquiries as to the compact order and situation of his own ships, as well as they could be made out in the darkness. Long before

SHIPS were stationed to watch and report the enemy's motions. From various quarters information came that they were quite close; but on the 13th of February, Captain Foote, in the Niger frigate, joined, to announce that he had kept sight of them for three days; and on the same day, the Minerva frigate, Captain Cockburn, bearing Commodore Nelson's broad pendant from the Mediterranean, and the Lively fri

man.

“Many years ago, long before the whites had penetrated to this wilderness, the inhabitants of an Indian village in the vicinity were surprized by a party of hostile warriors. They had formed their encampment around the point which you see jutting out into the water, and proceeded silently to the abode of their

In after times the young warrior and his bride returned to the scene of their nocturnal adventure, and painted these figures in commemoration of it. Time has not impaired their work, or their memory, and to this day the spot retains the name of the "Lovers Cave."

CAPTAIN HALE AND MAJOR ANDRE.

the break of day he walked the deck in more than even his usual stern silence.

When the gray of the morning of the 14th enabled him to discern his fleet, his first observations were high approbation of the captains for "their admirable close order, and that he wished they were now well up with the enemy, for," added his confidence in his force, and thoughtfulness for a desponding country, "victory is very essential to England at this moment." The morning was very foggy: as the mist cleared in the distance, the Lively and then the Niger signaled "a strange fleet." The Bonne Citoyenne was ordered to reconnoitre; but very soon afterward the Culloden's signal guns announced the enemy. At twenty minutes after nine the signal was made to the Culloden, Blenheim, Prince George, and shortly afterward to the Irresistible, Orion and Colossus to chase. The Commander-in-Chief still walked the quarter-deck; and as the hostile numbers were counted, they were duly reported to him by the Captain of the fleet.

"There are eight sail of the line, Sir John." "Very well, sir."

"There are twenty sail of the line, Sir John." "Very well, sir."

"There are twenty-five sail of the line, Sir John." "Very well, sir.”

There are twenty-seven sail, Sir John!" and this was accompanied by some remark on the great disparity of the two forces.

"Enough! sir-no more of that; the die is cast; and if there are fifty sail, I will go through them," was to this, in sharp tones, the silencing answer, which so delighted Captain Hallowell, walking beside the Commander-in-Chief, that, in the exstacy of the moment, he could not help patting his admiral's back, exclaiming:

"That's right, Sir John-that's right; by wc shall give them a d-d good licking."-Memoirs of Earl St. Vincent.

411

at midnight with ease, even while passing through a forest. And the year after, at the same season, we often whiled away our leisure moments by sitting at the window of the house where we stayed, on the English quay in St. Petersburg, a city north of Stockholm, and reading until midnight, during that period, scarcely a cloud was to be seen in the sky, which had both day and night that light blue which is peculiar to these northern regions at this period of the year, and which is occasioned by the rays of the sun striking the atmosphere of that portion of the earth at so small an angle. Scarcely a star was visible in the heavens at night, and the moon, even when full, hardly, formed a shadow. At that season, there is something unnatural and death-like in the appearance of things as night sets in. Business comes to an end before the sun goes down, and all nature falls into stillness and repose while it is yet light; and if you have been unaccustomed to such a state of things, you seem as you pass the streets, whether it be of Stockholm or St. Petersburg, Hernosand or Tornea, to be in the midst of a city which is uninhabited. No living thing, perhaps, is to be seen anywhere, as you pass street after street, save some solitary sentinel with his gray coat and musket.

CAPTAIN HALE AND MAJOR ANDRE.

THE tragical death of Captain Hale is one of the most patriotic, yet melancholy episodes in the history of the revolution. But a few of our readers are probably acquainted with the story, and a brief recital may not be inappropriate, recording as it does one of the most brilliant acts of self-sacrifice and devotion ever recorded in the annals of any country.

Nathan Hale was a native of the town of Coventry in Connecticut. He graduated from Yale College in the class of 1773, with the highest honors, and was remarkable for quiet and studious habits and his gentlemanly demeanor. Immediately after the Battle of Bunker's Hill, he abandoned his intentions of entering into the ministry, and received a commission as lieutenant in one of the Connecticut regiments, commanded by Major Thomas Knowlton. He was in the detachment commanded by that gallant officer when he destroyed the barracks of the British troops on one of the islands in Boston harbor; and after the evacuation of that city, accompanied the regiment to New York, and was for a time stationed on Bergen heights, to keep the Jersey in check. At the battle of Long Island this regiment acted nobly-Knowlton was raised to the rank of Colonel, and Hale was commissioned a Captain. The regiment was taken into the line of the army as a corps of light infantry of rangers. After the retreat from Long Island, General Wash

THE SUN AT MIDNIGHT.

A STEAMBOAT leaves Stockholm every week, and touches at Gefle, Hudiksvall, Hernosand, Umea, and other points on the western coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, as well as Wassa on the eastern, on its way to Tornea, at the head of the gulf. This voyage is a very pleasant one, and gives an opportunity to those who wish to go up to that very northern city at the summer solstice, (the 23d of June, or St. John's day,) when, from a neighboring mountain, they can have their faith confirmed in the Corpenican system. For, at that epoch, the sun, to those who are on that elevation, does not descend below the horizon, but is scen to decline to the north-west, and verge more and more to the exact north, until it reaches midnight, its low-ington was anxious to ascertain the situation and inest point when it is just visible above the horizon. In tentions of Sir William Howe, and requested Colonel a few minutes it is seen to commence its upward Knowlton to ascertain if any officer of his regiment course toward the north-east, and thus continues its was willing to cross to the enemy's camp as a spy. glorious progress until it reaches its zenith in the Colonel Knowlton called his officers together, and resouth. Even to one who is in Stockholm at that epoch,lated the request of the commander-in-chief. Captain the nights for two or three weeks are sufficiently light Hale at once volunteered his services to undertake the from the refraction of the sun's rays, owing to its angerous enterprize. being so little beneath the horizon, for the performance of almost any business. We happened, about that time, about four years ago to be going up to the Promotion at Upsala, and were obliged to travel all night; and we have a distinct recollection of reading a letter

He crossed to Long Island in disguise, was in the British camp for two or three days, and after fulfilling his mission, was about to return, when he was recognized by a refugee and carried before Sir William Howe. On being questioned, he acknowledged he was an of

ficer in the service of his country, and proclaimed his months for one dollar, or eight months for two dollars, object in entering the British camp.